LearningCurve Module 55

Aaron, a man in his fifties suffering from depression, is considering trying deep-brain stimulation (DBS) to alleviate his symptoms. His review of the research, however, shows that there is a _____ percent chance that the treatment will not help at all.

30

After three sessions of electroconvulsive therapy each week for two to four weeks, _____ percent of people with severe depression improve markedly.

70

Therapeutic lifestyle change specifies a total of at least _____ minutes of aerobic exercise and at least _____ meaningful social engagements each week.

90; two Submitanswer

One of the biggest benefits of lithium is:

reducing suicide risk.

Even though he has been taking medication for his depression, Gilbert recently attempted suicide. In an effort to better address his depression, his doctor is recommending electroconvulsive therapy. Gilbert is wondering about possible side effects. His doctor should tell him that the possible side effects include:

seizures and memory loss.

Mel and her doctor are trying to decide which medication Mel should use to reduce her psychotic symptoms. Her doctor told her that the first-generation dopamine-blocking drugs can have side effects such as:

twitches and tremors.

Sharif has mild depression. Recently he read that therapeutic lifestyle change research has shown that something as simple as frequent _____ can relieve symptoms.

walks in the woods

The fact that electroconvulsive therapy, massage therapy, and transcranial magnetic stimulation all alleviate severe depression suggests that the common underlying factor may be:

a change in the level of stimulation to the brain.

If Roxanne, who suffers from episodic depression, wants to have the best long-term improvement, which lifestyle change would be the LEAST effective?

aromatherapy

Agnes is a graduate student in psychology who suffers from depression. She has been on antidepressants for years with marginal effect. Instead of taking additional medication or undergoing brain stimulation, her therapist recently encouraged her to review research on therapeutic lifestyle change. Agnes noticed that those who went through the 12-week training program performed all of the following EXCEPT:

avoiding omega-3 fatty acids.

Edith suffers from depression. She has been using antidepressants for years with little effect. She has resisted her therapist's recommendations of undergoing electroconvulsive therapy. More recently, though, her therapist has been mentioning a new procedure that calms the area of the brain normally overexcited in people who are depressed by exciting neurons. This procedure is known as:

deep-brain stimulation.